Xbox 360 Kinect

If you weren't convinced by the Xbox 360 Essentials Pack revealed earlier today, Microsoft has another deal for you gamers out there - a $40 price cut on the Kinect. This piece of hardware is the sensor that allows your body to become the controller, connected here to the Xbox 360 with a "permanent price drop" on the books now per Microsoft's own Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb. This makes the unit a $109.99 peripheral and still requires that you purchase an Xbox 360 unit besides - unless you've already got one, of course.

The Kinect has seen some interesting uses from various games, with some trying to incorporate the motion controls directly into gameplay, while others use it as a learning tool, but Fifa 13 may take things one step further. According to The Telegraph, Fifa 13 will listen in on the player and pick up any swearing or bad language using the Kinect’s microphone. The game will then let that influence the referee in the football game, which could lead to harsher judgements.

Three new Kinect titles for the Xbox 360 have been given pricing and dates today: Kinect Sesame Street TV, Kinect Nat Geo TV, and Nike+ Kinect Training. The first two titles are designed to be two-way interactive learnings experiences, allowing children to “ jump inside” their favorite television programs. Both titles can be expanded as well, allowing parents to buy additional content for the games from the Xbox Marketplace as part of packs or individual episodes.

Many may have thought that the Wii Fit was a silly idea, but that didn’t stop it making ridiculous amounts of money for Nintendo. Why not apply the same principle to the Kinect? Kinect PlayFit has been officially revealed today, and will be made available as a free download for any Xbox Live members in the US. PlayFit will be making its way outside the US too, although international gamers will have to wait until next week.

For those of you that saw the 56-page document showing the plans for the Xbox 720 this past week, you'll be glad that you downloaded it: sites across the web, not just sites like Scribd that'd originally had the document up in the cloud. The takedown order has been pushed by none other than Legal firm called Covington & Burling LLP, the same Microsoft-representing firm that ordered the takedown on other sites earlier this week. Today this order has been expanded to sites such as IHNED as well as Dropbox - the latter having the file hosted on one of its soon-to-be-phased-out public folders anyway.

Looks like the rumors turned out to be true. Microsoft has officially announced that you’ll be able to purchase an Xbox 360 and Kinect bundle for $99 on a two-year contract. That will net you the 4GB version of the console, plus a $15 a month subscription fee that will also include an Xbox Live Gold membership so you can fully experience online multiplayer.

Looks like more and more developers are jumping on the Kinect bandwagon. Bethesda Studios announced yesterday that Skyrim would be able to take advantage of Kinect voice commands in an update coming later this month, and now a beloved franchise will be receiving the same motion capture treatment. Namco Bandai has announced Dragon Ball Z Kinect, due in October.

Bethesda Studios today announced that the Xbox 360 version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be receiving an update enabling Kinect support. The update will be available for free later this month. Bethesda say that they’ve added 200 voice commands into the game, including support for dragon shouts. Instead of scrolling through an endless menu of commands, now you’ll simply be able to call out the necessary shout.

A new extended cinematic trailer for the much anticipated Mass Effect 3 game title has hit YouTube today, adding a more human element to the usual mix of mass destruction and awesome graphics. There's still plenty of destruction of course by the invading Reapers, but this trailer adds a stronger sense of motivation to protect the human race from annihilation.

Earlier today we found that the Xbox 360 Dashboard update promised for today was just a bit delayed - now we learn from Microsoft's Major Nelson that though the update was delayed through much of today, the first set of customers will be getting their Xbox LIVE update within the next few hours. For those of you just learning about this situation now, Microsoft is updating your Xbox 360 with new software today if not inside the week with several new bits of functionality. Amongst changes are updates to your Kinect sensor (if you have one) and new bits of content in your streaming TV service.